The Lions and the Snake
by CatLikesTea
Summary: ABANDONED Marauder!Severus AU: Presenting to you, 'The Marauders' with Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs and um, Severus Snape? Who would have thought? Written for the Marauders Challenge by Puffers aren't Duffers featuring a certain slimy Slytherin as an honorary fifth Marauder PLEASE R/R xx
1. A New Beginning

**The Lions and the Snake**

 **Disclaimer: All belongs to JKR except the plot**

A/N: This story is being written for the 'Marauders Challenge' for the lovely **Puffer's aren't Duffers** and the idea and the start of chapter one are all theirs.

 **Let's go**

"Hey, wait up!"

Severus jerked at the sound of footsteps following him; four pairs of footsteps, he'd bet, echoing off the walls of the hall. He half considered bolting, spurred by the thought of a second trip to the hospital wing in one week, but it would do nothing but ruin his composure. So he turned around, shoulders hunched defensively, and glowered at the boys running towards him. It was as he had expected; all day the Marauders had been following him like demonic shadows. They grinned, cat-like, as they approached.

"What do you want, Potter?" He sneered. His most despised enemy stopped a few feet away with, as usual, his cronies: half-ogre Black, the nerd Lupin, and simpering Pettigrew. Tossing Sev a smile that many called charming but he knew to be sickening, Potter said, "Hello, Severus."

Something about the greeting struck Sev as ominous, despite it having Potter's normal cheer and arrogance. 'Severus.' Potter had called him by name.

'A slip-up, nothing more,' he tried to reassure himself, yet his gut twisted uneasily. "I don't have time to waste on this, Potter," he snapped.

"No time on the weekend?" Black whistled. "You really do have to lighten up. We're second years, have some fun."

"I'm sure your idea of fun wouldn't quite agree with my intelligence," Sev drawled. Casually enough that it might not be noticed, at least by these dim-wits, he backed up. He didn't at all like this. The "Marauders", as they liked to call themselves, preferred to catch their victim when they had a crowd, and didn't spare time on niceties.

He drew his wand and kept backing up. "I believe I'll be taking my leave. I for one do not enjoy standing in drafty corridors."

"No, Sev, wait. We came here to congratulate you."

"Congratulate me?" Sev put as much condescending dryness in that as possible, but his heart beat a little faster. 'Here it comes, then.'

"Yep," Black chirped, striding forwards and trying to clap him on the back. (Severus side-stepped it and backed up faster.) "Congrats on becoming our fifth member!"

"What?" The incredulous question slipped out without leave.

"You're our fifth member!" Potter repeated. "Welcome to the Marauders."

Severus blinked. He blinked again. And then he tore off gracelessly down the hall.

Potter's sigh bounced off the walls. "Oh bugger. Black, fetch him."

 **(This is all mine now)**

Severus ran, along the corridors, down the stairs and then eventually burst out the doors of the great hall. The idea was absurd. Him, one of Potter's sidekicks? A part of the infamous group who had made themselves known in first year by causing nothing but trouble for the professors? A slightly deranged laugh escaped his lips earning him some slightly odd looks, which he ignored.

Just then, a slightly breathless looking Sirius Black came running up to him.

"Sev," he panted, trying to catch his breath. "Just, I know we were assholes to you last year and-,"

"Too right you were," interrupted Severus, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah but just…" Black sighed resignedly. "Consider it okay?"

Severus's eyebrows shot up even further. "You weren't joking." This wasn't a question, but a statement, confirmed by Black's brief nod of his head.

"See you around Severus," he said, and walked away, leaving Sev wondering if he had failed to wake up that morning and was now having a very odd dream. He pinched himself, hard, until he was certain that this was, in fact, reality. It was in that moment that he made a choice. To this day, he would never know what caused him to make such an impetuous decision. Perhaps it was his lack of close friends or his inability to ever have fun or enjoy himself (He had never cared for Potter's somewhat frivolous behaviour).

"Hey, Black, wait up!"

Black turned around. "Yes?" He replied, smirking as if this was expected (which, Sev reminded himself, it probably had been).

"I-," Severus lost all his composure and mumbled, "I want to join,"

Black put a mocking hand to his ear and grinned widely.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"I think," Sev said with significantly more confidence than the first time, "That I would like to join your group of friends Potter decided it would be a good idea to call 'The Marauders'."

"Hey!" Black retorted, trying and failing to hide a smile, "I like that name!"

"You know it literally means thieves?"

Sirius gasped in fake hurt. "What're you accusing us of, Sev?"

"Of course, only you would name your group of pranksters without even knowing what the name meant." Sev sighed in exasperation. "How did you even think of the name if you don't know what it was?"

"Oh," Sirius grinned sheepishly, "I guess it kind of makes sense now; McGonagall called us that when she caught us raiding Slughorn's potions cupboard," without letting Severus reply, he hastily added, "But that's for another time- now, time to meet the other Marauders!"

And with that, he grabbed Sev's wrist and dragged him through the main doors, leaving Severus trying to tell him that he did actually know the other marauders due to the fact they'd spent the most part of first-year constantly bugging him.

A thought occurred to him and he tugged on Sirius's wrist, forcing him to stop. "Black."

"What?" Sirius huffed impatiently.

"Why do you suddenly want me in your little gang? You hated me last year- what's in it for you?"

Sirius looked at him as if he was assessing him, and then looked him straight in the eye and said, "Prongs thought he sensed your inner prankster."

Sev snorted- actually snorted- and replied, "If you'd told me I had an 'inner prankster' six months ago, I would be absolutely horrified."

But after that he let Black drag him up the stairs- willingly this time.

 **A/N: Did you love it? Hate it? All reviews are welcome, pleaseeeee tell me if you like it or not and what you think should happen in the next chapters.**

 **Cat Xx**


	2. Reactions

**The Lions and the Snake**

 **Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Harry Potter. Got it?  
** **Sorry if there's any grammatical mistakes, I try my best.  
** **A/N: Thank you all the lovely people who reviewed, I will send virtual cookies :)**

 **Let's go**

 **Chapter 2- Reactions**

The following day came far too quickly for Severus's liking. He had been instructed, that as there were four of the Gryffindor prats and he was the only Slytherin, _he_ would be the one having to sit at the rival table. He had almost considered walking out after that but decided otherwise when the others glared menacingly at him, despite the fact all he had done was stand up with only the slightest _thought_ of leaving.

The door to the Great Hall only a foot away now, Snape let out an over-exaggerated sigh and shoved open the doors in mild annoyance. He strode briskly to the dreaded table and sat down before he could change his mind.

"Hello Severus," said Sirius cheerfully, ignoring the growing stares and whispers from along the table. "Hello, Bla- Sirius, Remus," Severus said, nodding to each of them, "Hello Potter."

The three grinned at him in unison. 'Creepy,' thought Sev, before asking, "Where's Pettigrew?"

"Asleep," said Lupin. Severus had always preferred him to the others. While the others often got carried away with their shenanigans, Remus kept a cool head and stayed out of trouble. He was clever, but not arrogant, kind, but not overly so. He hoped they would become good friends.

The first bell rang and the four made their way to Transfiguration, meeting Peter outside the door.

"I overslept," he said unnecessarily, "Why didn't you-," The others were saved from answering when the door flew open and a stern voice called from inside.

"Come in."

Professor McGonagall was having an odd day. Firstly, she had been delayed by a group of first-year girls claiming they had seen a wild hippogriff loose in the school (they had seen no such thing, she had reprimanded them, causing one to burst into floods of tears) and then at the breakfast table came the news that there was going to be an end of term ball, which she acknowledged wearily, only to be immediately asked out by Rubeus Hagrid (she had accepted, albeit rather grudgingly). Now, in the first lesson of the day, she had been about to start teaching when the weirdest sight met her eyes. Severus Snape had not sat down in his usual seat at the front at the room but at the back with the Marauders. She fixed him with a long hard stare and he just stared back. _How odd_. She decided to ignore it for the time being and began her lesson on transfiguring useless objects to objects of great use to muggles, such as an excellent device they called the washing machine.

It wasn't long before she heard the usual whispered exchange at the back of the class while she was speaking.

"Potter! Black! What is it you have to say that is so important you feel the need to interrupt my lesson?"

Potter gave her a toothy grin, "Sirius and I were just telling Severus here that treacle tart is clearly the best dessert, much better than boring old fruitcake."

McGonagall blinked. Then she looked carefully, from Black, to Potter, to Snape, who seemed unfazed by the fact that his known arch enemies were talking to him about pudding. She shook her head and muttered, "See me after class, you three."

* * *

The end of the lesson came, and the three boys stayed behind, waiting patiently for the Professor to put away the lesson plan. They looked at her expectantly when she finished.

"Yes Professor?" Asked Severus calmly. She looked at the three of them disbelievingly.

"I just wanted to say that I'm glad you three have set your differences aside and are acting civil to each other…"

"Oh, Sev is more than just a friend now," Sirius explained, wanting more of a reaction from their normally in-control teacher. "Sev is a _Marauder_."

'Well this day just keeps getting weirder and weirder,' thought McGonagall to herself. Then to the boys, she said faintly, "You are dismissed," and waved them off. She wondered briefly if she was hallucinating and, deciding she must be ill, walked off to the hospital wing.

* * *

"Scales? Snape the Snake?"

"I'm not actually a snake you know,"

"Yeah, but what other animal do we associate you with?"

"How about a bat?"

"I am not a bat!"

"Batty? Wings?"

"No!"

The boys sat under a large willow tree in the school grounds, huddled around a piece of Parchment. They had decided that as a Marauder, Sev would obviously need a Marauder name.

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs and Batty? Think again Sirius," said Remus.

"That's what we call our next-door neighbour. Mad as a Hatter he is. We think he's some kind of Evil Scientist."

"What's a Scientist?"

"Never mind," sighed Peter. "I thought you were into muggle studies?"

"Yeah, well that was just to impress Evans," James confessed sheepishly. "I don't actually care about muggles at all."

"Oi, my Mum's a muggle!"

"Sorry Pete, but it's true."

"So! Back to the topic! What should Severus' Marauder name be?" Cut in Sirius impatiently.

"Yours are all based on what your Patronus is, right?" Asked Severus.

The others nodded and Sev had to admit he was impressed- they were only second years after all.

"So, if you were to teach me how to cast a Patronus could that give us an idea for my name?"

The others nodded eagerly. "Ask Remus," Sirius said, "He's the expert."

Remus looked pleased at this and agreed. "Okay Sev, you need to think of your happiest memory. Hold that thought in your head and when you're ready, the incarnation is 'Expecto Patronum'."

Severus thought. Happy memories… hmm. He settled on when he was reading in the library and the feeling of peace and tranquillity that came with it. Perfect.

"Expecto Patronum," he said loudly. A white mist came out the end of his wand, so dull you could mistake it for fog.

"Not bad for your first try," said Remus, "Try another memory, that one wasn't strong enough."

Severus decided on his memories of Lily before Hogwarts- his first friend. Contrary to popular belief, he felt nothing but purely platonic feelings for his best friend. "Expecto Patronum."

The mist that came out was brighter than before, but Sev knew he could do better. Expecto Patronum," he said, half yelling now.

A brilliant white light burst out of his wand, taking the form of a majestic… Bat.

"Flappy? Sirius suggested, grinning.

 **A/N: Yes, I am aware that the Marauders probably couldn't cast a Patronus in second-year, but it's what fits with the story, sorry. Also, I know their names were from their animagus' but again, they're too young to become animagi in second-year and I wanted them to already have their names. And I know that Severus' Patronus is meant to be a doe to match Lily's but as he has no romantic feeling towards Lily in this story, it is his own animal.**

 **Also, PLEASE LEAVE SUGGESTIONS IN THE REVIEWS FOR SEVERUS' MARAUDER NAME because I don't actually have one yet.**

 **Please R/R,**

 **Cat Xx**


	3. Pranks and Floo Powder

**The Lions and the Snake**

 **A/N: I'm sorry, I'm late with the update (I should have posted on Friday) but I've been busy with other writing deadlines (competitions and such) but THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS I really appreciate them *hugs***

 **Disclaimer: Don't own**

 **Chapter 3 Pranks and Floo Powder**

For a few weeks, the boys had been preparing for a much-anticipated event; Severus's marauder ceremony- his first official prank. Remus had reasoned that they could always pull off an easy prank in the common room any day, but Sirius insisted it had to be something big. It had taken a while but they had now perfected their prank and were ready to do it in the great hall that evening at dinner.

Severus was finding it hard to concentrate in any of his lessons- even his favourite subject, potions. He had never done anything particularly worthy of a detention, and although he would never admit it to anyone, he could hardly wait. When the evening came, all five of the boys were so jittery with excitement, they couldn't keep still.

"Sev, you remember the spell, right?"

"Of course I remember the spell, you've been reminding me constantly all day," muttered Severus, "Now did _you_ remember the cloak?"

James nodded his agreement and opened his bag under the table, just enough for the others to see the silky material poking out.

"Okay boys, time for our best prank yet." Ducking under the table, James slipped the cloak over himself and left the table, unseen.

"Tripudio," whispered Sev under his breath, pointing his wand at the head table. All the professors rose from their chairs at once, and out of nowhere, a waltz began to play. Severus could see Remus muttering a spell and directing his wand in Dumbledore's direction. Sev furrowed his brows in confusion; they hadn't planned this.

That was when things started getting confusing. Dumbledore burst into song at the same time as the doors of the great hall opened loudly with a slam. Suits of armour started waltzing in, at the same time as the professors were forced to dance down the middle of the hall, weaving gracefully in and out of the tables. At least, that's what was meant to happen. What the boys hadn't realized, was that the spell 'Tripudio' was to simply used to take control of the victim's body and force them to dance.

Unfortunately, this meant the professors had no control of their bodies at all and were, therefore, unable to avoid solid objects, such as the house tables, for instance, meaning they all ended up dancing on top of them. Students dived for cover, as puddings were kicked in every direction, coating the students in dessert. Sev found this hilarious until a flying bowl of custard landed on his head.

Then things got slightly more chaotic. The suits of armour each grabbed a professor and started waltzing with them clumsily, although luckily the students had all managed to retreat to the sides of the hall safely. All aside from Dumbledore that was, who had been grabbed by a stone gargoyle instead, and was now singing 'Music of the Night' from Phantom of the Opera.

As the spell began to wear off, Sev was yanked under the invisibility cloak by the others, and they attempted to run out the great hall before anyone could catch them. Unfortunately, Peter slipped and fell just outside the hall's open doors, and revealed the five's attempt to remove themselves untidily from the situation.

The spell had now fully worn off, and the suits of armour were lying scattered on the table. McGonagall's face grew bright red as she saw the escaping boys.

"BOYS!" she bellowed across the room. "DETENTION!"

The Marauders grinned sheepishly and ran from the room before they could be attacked by the pudding-smothered, angry horde of students.

James smirked. "I think that went pretty well, don't you?"

The others had to agree- it was indeed a spectacular prank.

* * *

Severus sighed sadly as he sat on his four-poster in the Slytherin dormitories. Of course, it was great to finally have a group of close friends, but it had made him an outcast in his own house. What he wouldn't give to share a dorm with the Marauders. He chuckled lightly to himself. If he'd known six months ago he would be thinking things like this, he would think he had gone insane.

Meanwhile, in the Marauders' dorm, Sirius and James were also contemplating Severus' ability to stay friends with them when he was so far away all the time.

"It just seems so unfair that we're all here and he's just on his own… down there."

Sirius had to agree. He would hate not having the rest of the group in the same house as him. He couldn't even begin to imagine how lonely it would be.

When Remus came into the dormitory, the two were sat on James' bed looking forlorn. He sat down next to them, making the bed dip slightly. The others looked at him miserably.

"What's up?" Remus asked worriedly.

James shrugged. "We were thinking about Sev, and how he shouldn't have to be in a dorm by himself."

"'Course, there's nothing we can do about it, with him being in another house…" Sirius added sadly.

"Well, I do have an idea of what we could do," Remus said quietly. "I don't know if it would work though, and we'd have to ask permission."

The other two looked hopeful at this and Remus continued, "There's a fireplace in here, so if there's one in Sev's dormitory…"

"We could ask McGonagall for permission to connect us to the floo network-," Sirius continued.

"And then we can see Sev whenever we want!" James finished excitedly. "Rem, you're a genius!"

"But only if we're granted permission," said Remus sternly. "Let's not get our hopes up. In fact, I read in 'Hogwarts, a History' that although many of the dormitories have fireplaces, none of them have ever been connected through the floo network before."

Sirius grinned widely. "Never mind that, I'm sure we'll get permission," he said, confidently.

Remus smiled. "If you say so Pads, if you say so."

The following night, the boys found themselves standing nervously outside the Professor's office. It had only been a couple of nights since their detention, so McGonagall had had barely any time to cool off. However, Peter (once informed of the idea) had been as excited as the rest and had convinced them to go as soon as possible.

James knocked twice, and then withdrew gingerly, as if scared of being attacked. The door opened almost immediately, revealing the tight-lipped woman standing impatiently.

"Yes?"

James gulped. "We were wondering…"

"If maybe…"

"We could connect our dorm to the Slytherin dorm using floo powder?" Sirius and James finished together.

When the Professor didn't reply, Remus added hastily, "We just thought we needed to do something about the house unity you're always going on about… And Sev seems so cut off from us."

McGonagall looked for a moment as if she was fighting an internal battle with herself.

"Well… I'm not sure… I don't- Oh why not?"

The boys looked at each other, shocked.

"She didn't…" began Peter in awe.

"She did!" shouted the others gleefully.

McGonagall cut in sharply, "That does not mean I will allow you to abuse your power. You will not tell others of this because if every dorm was allowed to travel by floo, it would get very chaotic. Mr Snape will be the only one in his dormitory allowed this privilege as I'm sure the other Slytherins wouldn't appreciate it."

Later that night, Severus got the shock of his life when the four Gryffindors came tumbling into the Slytherin dorms one after the other. Sev didn't mind though.

He couldn't, after all, say he wasn't happy about it.


	4. Remus

**The Lions and the Snake**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story (I wish I did but I don't, okay)?  
Please excuse any grammatical errors  
A/N: It's a day late, sorry, I've been quite busy recently. Please review, I might start answering them, so if you have any questions or anything now is your chance :) Okay, I think that's all**

 **Let's go**

 **Chapter 4- Remus**

Remus Lupin was a peculiar person. He was skinny and sickly looking, and his face and hands sported a number of nasty looking scars. Another thing rather peculiar about Remus was his monthly disappearances. Every month, Remus made an excuse to leave the school premises, whether it was a dangerously ill close family member, or a family friend's funeral.

These did not go unnoticed by his friends- in fact, it was the very reason for their current intrusion of the otherwise peaceful library. Remus hadn't yet objected, as it was easy to convince him they were studying, and to that, he _couldn't_ disapprove.

That night, Remus had been called home to visit his aunt in hospital. As predicted by the others, it was about a month or so from his last disappearance.

Something didn't add up, especially as the last excuse had been that same aunt's funeral.

* * *

The dorm was unnervingly silent that night- with Remus' absence, no-one really felt like talking, deciding instead to finish the numerous essays they had been given that week. They each sat on their respective beds in the dark, the light of the moon filtering through the gaps of the curtains and splaying across the floor magnificently.

Sirius sighed, and looked out the window. "It's a full moon tonight," he stated, trying to get a conversation going, so he could procrastinate his work as long as possible. Severus frowned. The fact was seemingly meaningless, but there was something odd about it that struck him. All of a sudden, something clicked, causing him to yelp out loud.

The others turned to look at him sharply.

"Sev?" James asked worriedly, "Are you okay?"

Severus nodded shakily. "Yeah, I just… Figured something out. Could you check the other dates?"

Halfway through first-year, James, Sirius and Peter had started keeping a record of Remus' disappearances ever since they noticed they were regular occurrences. So far, the only hint at a pattern was the fact the dates were about one month apart.

He looked at his lunar calendar as James began reading the dates.

"12th of January, 11th of February, 12th, 11th, 10th…

Looking at the calendar now, Sev could see an obvious pattern and was surprised none of them had noticed it before.

"Guys," he said, quietly, "Guys, look at this."

He had marked on all the dates James listed, so the pattern was obvious.

"The dates…" whispered Sirius unsurely.

"They're all on the full moon," James said for him. "But that means nothing Sev, they could just be coincidences."

"That's highly unlikely," Severus shook his head. "The dates though, they match up with something else- his scars."

"You don't think someone's hurting him, do you?" Sirius growled angrily, "Because I swear, if they are, I'll… I'll-,"

"Sirius, calm down, that's not what I'm suggesting. I think maybe… Of course, I could be wrong but…" Severus fumbled over his words. He didn't know how the others would take it, but it was a legitimate possibility which had to be considered.

"Oh, just say it will you, Sev?" James said impatiently, though sounding quite hesitant, as though afraid of what could be revealed.

Severus took a deep breath and said quickly, "I think he could be a werewolf."

There was a long silence.

"But why wouldn't he tell us?" Sirius said, confused. "I mean, surely he didn't think he could keep something like that a secret for so long."

Severus shook his head. "There's a lot of prejudice in the Wizarding World and a lot of people would be disgusted by the thought of sharing a dorm with someone like him." His voice turned bitter. "If he were in Slytherin, if anyone found out Remus would be expelled."

"But... why?" Asked Sirius. Severus studied his face closely, but he couldn't read his expression.

Sev sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well think about it. You're the son or daughter of a death eater. You've been brought up in a prejudiced environment, taught to hate all muggles, half-breeds and any wizard who's blood isn't pure. At Hogwarts, you find out you're sharing a dormitory with someone your parents have told you is the scum of this earth. What do you do? You send a letter to your parents telling them exactly that because it's all you know, and you don't know what else to do. And when Dumbledore is threatened by dozens of parents for putting their child in so-called jeopardy..." He scoffed, and looked away angrily, trying to hide just how unfair he found the situation.

"But Remus has never hurt anyone!" James blurted out incredulously. "He's just like the rest of us."

"Maybe so," Severus muttered, "But most people who don't have a werewolf for a friend don't appreciate that. They think they're a monster all the time, not just on the night of the full moon."

"Well they're wrong," Sirius spat angrily.

"I know," Severus said sadly. "But they don't."

The room quickly returned to silence, and only sounds being quills scratching on parchment could be heard.

* * *

The next morning, the three Gryffindors went down to the great hall, looking happier than they had in a while, due to their new revelation. They were planning to confront Remus about it after breakfast, as he usually returned around breakfast time. They met Severus outside and went in, looking for their friend. He was absent from the table, however, and so the four reassured themselves that he wasn't always back in time for the first meal of the day, and sometimes came during their first or second lesson.

Still, they couldn't shake the worry they felt every time the doors opened and it wasn't Remus.

About halfway through breakfast, Professor McGonagall rushed through the hall doors. The boys' heads shot up, for the Professor was running towards them. As she reached them, the worry was clear on her face.

"Boys, you'd better come with me," She looked over to Severus. "You'd better come too, Snape."

The boys glanced at each other anxiously. This probably wasn't going to be good.

As they got to the corridor outside, Sirius' curiosity got the best of him. "What is it? Is it about Remus?"

She looked them over grimly. "Yes. It's not my place tell you how, but he's been seriously injured and he's suffering from blood loss. He's in a coma. We don't know if whether he'll survive."

 **A/N: Yay, the first (kind of) cliff-hanger! Another thing I feel obliged to mention is the fact the full moon dates were from this year. Um, that's it I guess, again, sorry for the lateness. Please leave a review, byee!**

 **Cat Xx**


	5. Secrets and Stuff

**The Lions and the Snake**

 **A/N: (IMPORTANT) I'm changing the rating to T because I'm unsure of how the ratings work and I'm worried my writing sometimes goes above K+? Also I think there's a swear in this chapter.**  
 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter but I do own quite a nice ukulele.**  
 **Sorry for any grammatical mistakes**  
 **Let's go**

Chapter 5- Secrets and Stuff (Inventive, I know)

The marauders paced anxiously outside the curtains around Remus' bed, concealing him from their view. They had not yet been permitted to see Remus, as Madame Pomfrey was performing various healing spells and forcing potions into his bloodstream because his condition was 'unstable' and they weren't to distract her. They now knew exactly how Remus had got those wounds, and it proved their earlier statement, although none of them said it aloud.

Remus Lupin was a werewolf.

The truth didn't frighten them, as it might do other people, and they promised each other, no matter what, that now they knew, nothing would change between them. Remus was their friend and he deserved that.

* * *

Remus opened his eyes a crack to find the Marauders sitting by his bed looking extremely worried. He lay there for a while longer, listening in on their conversation.

"We need to confront him about it, Pads. We can't just not talk to him about it. He can't keep it a secret forever, he'd explode!"

Remus frowned slightly, confused.

"It's such a big thing to keep hidden as well," sighed Severus.

Remus could feel the blood draining from his face. They couldn't possibly know… Could they?

"Yeah, imagine trying to hide the fact," James lowered his voice. "That you're a werewolf."

Oh shit, they knew. He slipped into a brief moment of panic and his eyes shot open, but before he could realize his mistake the others had noticed.

"Moony, you're awake!" Sirius shouted joyfully, pulling Remus into a hug. "You have no idea how worried- Remus, are you okay?"

Remus' face was white and he was trembling, avoiding Sirius' gaze.

"You know." It didn't come out as a question as he'd planned, but by the way the others immediately knew what he meant, he knew his suspicions had been confirmed.

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, we worked it out yesterday. Moony, why didn't you tell us? You know you can trust us, right?"

Remus shuddered. Other times he didn't mind that name- Moony- as it was named because of his Patronus, but now it seemed to be mocking him, constantly reminding him if what he was.

'They hate you for it' said a voice in his head. 'They're going to wait until you're out of here, then they'll show how frightened they are. Then they'll tell everyone, and you'll be kicked out the school.'

Remus mentally scolded the voice for having no faith in the people he trusted most. 'They're my friends!' He thought, angrily. 'They wouldn't tell anyone.'

'But what about the other people who shunned you?' said the voice. 'What about your family? None of them accepted you apart from your parents and your uncle.'

'That's not true!' thought Remus desperately. 'I still have my friends! They won't hate me, will they?'

"Remus?"

Will they?

Remus looked up, tears starting to build up in his eyes. He blinked them back, quickly, and turned his head away in shame. His friends couldn't see him like this!

"Remus, it doesn't matter to us, okay? If that's what you're worried about, anyway. We're your best friends!"

And that was all it took for Remus to start sobbing uncontrollably.

They didn't care what he was- they really _were_ real friends.

In that moment, he didn't think he could be happier.

* * *

Remus was let out the hospital wing in a couple of days, with the instructions to take his potions twice a day and to not do any sport, not that he would anyway (Remus was known for his hatred of anything involving exercise).

The Marauders sat in a circle in the middle of the dormitory, waiting for Remus to come back from the library, and when he did, pulled him down to sit with them.

The plan was to go around the circle, and each person would reveal something about themselves- something no-one else in the circle knew. Remus, after being informed of this, almost broke down in tears again, in appreciation of his friends, but fortunately managed to hold them back this time.

"I, Messr Padfoot, call a meeting of Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot Prongs and Batty," He paused for effect, and Sev scowled.

"I told you, I wanted my name to be Shade,"

"But that sounds so edgy! We're not meant to be edgy, we're meant to be cute, fluffy animals!"

"My Patronus is a bat."

"That's beside the point!"

Sirius gave an over-exaggerated sigh. "Okay, Moony, Wormatail, Padfoot, Prongs and _Shade_ …"

Severus grinned triumphantly.

"We are gathered here today," Sirius continued, ignoring him, "To tell each other our deepest, darkest, most hidden, unrevealed-,"

"Oh, get on with it Padfoot."

"Okay, okay! No need to get your knickers in a twist. So basically we're here to tell each other secrets, Wormatail, shoot."

Taken aback by the sudden question, Peter fumbled over his words, "I uh, um…" He looked lost, glancing around the room as if it would hold the answer to what his own secret was. "I err, I have a pet moose!" He blurted out. "And I named him after Gideon Crumb who plays bagpipes in the Weird Sisters!"

Sirius pouted. "That wasn't a very good secret- wait, you have a pet moose?"

The next five minutes were spent with Sirius and Peter exchanging information on where the best place to buy a moose was.

"Wait, if the plural of goose is geese, then isn't the plural of moose, meese?" Queried Remus, and the group plunged into conversation again.

It was another fifteen minutes before James got to reveal his secret.

"I," he declared, "Am in love with Sev's best friend."

"Who, Malfoy?" Smirked Severus, and if James was drinking pumpkin juice, he would have spat it out.

"What, no!" He spluttered, and the group burst into peals of laughter.

"Right, of course not," said Sev as they calmed down. "You mean Lily?"

"Of course he means Lily!" Sirius butted in. "Everyone knows he's in love with Lily! And everyone knows Lily hates the Marauders! It's not a secret!"

"Well Lily doesn't hate me, and I'm a Marauder," said Severus, proudly.

"Well, does she even know you're a Marauder?" Remus asked.

Sev went silent. "Oh. You're right, I don't believe she does."

"Well, at least she can be happy we're not fighting anymore," said James, a dreamy expression on his face. "Maybe she'll think I'm mature enough for her to date."

"Oh, snap out of it Prongs, even you know that's not true," joked Sirius. "Right, who's next?"

There was an awkward silence.

"Er, well actually, Severus and I were going to do it together, and we're the only ones left," Sirius said sheepishly. "Okay, here goes."

He swallowed nervously.

"I-,"

"Well, _we_ ,"

"Yes, _we_ ,"

"Well, you see…"

There was another silence.

"We don't really get on with our families,"

"As in _really_ don't get on."

"Well what we're trying to say, I guess, is that er,"

"Our families, they also really don't like _us_ "

"That is to say,"

"They don't like us,"

"To a point where…"

Sirius looked around hopelessly, and Sev looked down at the floor, ashamed.

"To a point where…" Sev tried to continue the sentence but found he couldn't because there was a lump forming in his throat, and he was afraid of what that could mean for his dignity.

He didn't need to finish the sentence though because Remus did it for him. "To a point where they _abuse_ you- Sirius, is this true? Sev?" His voice was quiet, and his eyes flashed with anger. In fact, Sirius didn't think he had ever seen him this angry before.

Their silence was the only answer Remus needed.

"I swear, I will-,"

"Remus, no- it's not that bad, really!" Sirius said, quickly, trying to go back, quickly regretting the decision of telling the others, and by Sev's expression, you could tell he felt the same way.

"Not that bad?" Remus said, rounding on him. "How bad is not that bad Sirius? What have they done to you for their treatment to be labelled as abuse? And you, Severus?"

The two looked at each other, panicked. They hadn't thought about how the others might react to their confession, they just thought it would be a good way to get it off their chests.

"Please, Remus, just leave it, I don't want to talk about it right now, and I don't think Sirius does either." Severus pleaded, and Sirius nodded in agreement.

Seeing how upset they were, Remus immediately felt guilty and lowered his voice to its normal volume.

"Okay, I'm sorry, it's just… We'll have to talk about this eventually, right guys?" He asked gently, and James and Peter agreed.

Glad the conversation was over, Sirius went to lie on his bed, and stared at the ceiling thoughtfully. Sev bid them goodnight and flooed back to the Slytherin dorms.

 **A/N: A bit of a rubbish end to the chapter, I know, but I've been quite busy today, so I haven't had much time to think about what was going in the story. Turns out I'm horrific at deadlines, so I only started this chapter this morning, along with the ten other things I have to do by the end of the week. Feel free to put plot suggestions in the reviews, as I'm still as unsure as you guys are as to where the story is going, so that would be quite helpful. Anyway, I promised I would do review responses for chapter 4, so here they are:**

 **Ayeshazhar** **:** Thank you so much, your comment literally made my day :)

 **PiffyEQ:** I mean he's kind of covering up quite a bit right now, but all will be revealed… at some point maybe. Also, that was actually a really good idea, but I always thought Sev created them in his later years at Hogwarts, so I didn't really put how Remus woke up, it just kind of happened. Also thank you for reviewing regularly, it makes me really happy :)

Aaaaaand that's all folks, see you in a week (if I'm not late at updating again)

Cat Xx


	6. Authors Note

Authors note (HIATUS)

It's only an authors note and I still managed to post it a day late. Oh bother.

Anyway, I'm really sorry if you thought this was an update but it's **quite important** so please read. Anyway, basically, I'm going on hiatus for the whole of November due to **NaNoWriMo** (National Novel Writing Month) and other writing competitions. The good news is that after NaNo I'll be used to writing a lot and so the updates for this story will probably be a lot longer. Again, I'm really sorry it's not an update.

See you all in December for some Christmas Marauders,

Cat Xx


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